‘6, 9, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 25, 28, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 43, 45’.

This string of numbers that look very similar to the ‘Shuangseqiu’ betting numbers is actually the category of goods or services covered by all trademark applications submitted by Didi Dache.

Two companies have been sued for trademark infringement, one of which claimed a claim amount of up to 80 million, which makes people have to pay attention to the current status and protection trend of Didi Taxi’s trademark applications.

Didi Taxi, a taxi-hailing software that has been established less than 3 years ago, has raised a total of 818 million US dollars (approximately 5.1 billion yuan), and claims to have 150 million users. Driven by capital and demand, it has not only become popular rapidly , has also set many precedents and has become the object of worship for many entrepreneurs or makers.

However, while Didi Dache is rapidly expanding, it is also facing trademark concerns and intellectual property disputes. So, from the perspective of trademark protection, what lessons does Didi Dache have for entrepreneurs to learn? Based on its existing trademark application layout, which fields may Didi Dache use in the future?

Lesson 1: 'Application too late' - applying for a trademark 2 months after the product went online

On July 10, 2012, Beijing Xiaoju Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'Xiaoju Technology') was officially established. Two months later, Didi Taxi (formerly known as Didi Taxi) took the lead in officially launching in Beijing.

The trademark application submitted by Didi Dache was on November 28, 2012, which is equivalent to 4 months after the company was established and 2 months after the product was launched, Didi Dache began to lay out trademark protection. .

Obviously, Didi Taxi was too ‘slow’ from the time of applying for trademark protection.

And Didi Taxi applied for a trademark for the first time only 2 months after the product was launched, which is destined to get itself into a series of trademark disputes.

If Didi Dache does not have strong "local promotion" capabilities and continuous capital injection, I am afraid that Didi Dache's entrepreneurial path will not go very far.

Lesson 2: 'Too few approvals' - out of 212 trademark applications, only 1 was approved. The query results on the Trademark Office website (China Trademark Network) show that as of May 6, 2015, Xiaoju Technology has accumulated 212 trademark applications were submitted, and the application times were distributed in 2012 (1 application), 2013 (1 application), 2014 (67 applications) and 2015 (143 applications).

It is worth mentioning that of the 212 trademark applications submitted by Didi Dache, only one has been approved for registration by the Trademark Office and is in the trademark opposition procedure.

The 'Didi Dache' graphic and text combination trademark (APP logo Didi Dache) applied for by Didi Dache on March 8, 2013 was approved for registration on July 28, 2014 and applied for protection. The goods or services are classified into 9 categories, and the specific scope of protection includes 'recorded computer operating programs, computer software, electronic publications, and navigation instruments for vehicles'.

However, a search on the Trademark Office website shows that the trademark was filed with an ‘objection’ by someone else on July 9, 2014, and is currently under ‘trademark opposition application’.

Lesson Three: 'Brand Fragility' - 60% are pending acceptance and more than 10% may be rejected. The query results on the Trademark Office website (China Trademark Network) show that Xiaoju Technology has submitted a total of 212 trademark applications, of which , 24***51 cases are in the status of 'accepted and registered', 64.2***136 cases are in the status of 'pending acceptance', 7***15 cases are in the status of 'rejected and under review', and 3.3* **7 cases are in the status of 'waiting for rejection review', and there are 1 case in the status of 'invalid', 'reexamination rejected', 'registered, objection pending', etc.

To put it simply, although Didi Dache has experienced four rounds of financing and a large number of trademark applications have been submitted after each round of financing, as of now, most of Didi Dache’s trademarks have not been approved for registration. The "weakness" of taxi-hailing trademark protection is evident.

The reason why a large number of Didi Dache’s trademarks have not been approved for registration is not only the long trademark review and approval cycle, but also the more important reason is that Didi Dache itself was too slow to apply for trademark protection.

In fact, the total number of trademarks applied for by Didi Taxi in the first two years after its establishment was less than one thousandth of its total number of trademark applications. Of the 212 trademark applications submitted by Didi Dache, more than 67.5% were filed in 2015.

Didi Taxi’s trademark protection strategy: deploying transportation services based on software